Although I don't think long-term institutionalization of people with severe and chronic psychiatric illness is a compassionate or desirable solution, the level of community-based services required to provide the kind of solution you describe is something we've never seen in the history of psychiatric care. And, in a time of what appears to be diminishing support for social safety nets, I'm not very optimistic that we will soon witness the changes you and I would both like to see. What we have seen are broken promises of broad community-based services accompanied by a gradual substitution of prisons for the psychiatric institutions you rightfully deplore. Perhaps early diagnosis and treatment will help many, but it will not be a panacea unless treatments become far more sophisticated and effective than they are today.
Long-term institutionalization
Although I don't think long-term institutionalization of people with severe and chronic psychiatric illness is a compassionate or desirable solution, the level of community-based services required to provide the kind of solution you describe is something we've never seen in the history of psychiatric care. And, in a time of what appears to be diminishing support for social safety nets, I'm not very optimistic that we will soon witness the changes you and I would both like to see. What we have seen are broken promises of broad community-based services accompanied by a gradual substitution of prisons for the psychiatric institutions you rightfully deplore. Perhaps early diagnosis and treatment will help many, but it will not be a panacea unless treatments become far more sophisticated and effective than they are today.